"ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
the very name of liberty seems in 
danger of becoming unpopular ; nor 
does he betray the slightest taint of 
those extravagant and chimerical 
opinions concerning government; 
which have infected another part of 
his countrymen. We may say that 
of him which cannot always be said 
of historians of great name, that, as 
an instructor in morals and politics, 
he is uniformly safe. Justice, hu- 
manity, liberty, and public tran- 
quillity have in him ar enlightened 
and inflexible advocate. Faithful 
to these—the invariable interests of 
mankind—he pronounces with rigid 
impartiality the judgment of history 
on all their enemies, whatever pre- 
text they may assume by whatever 
motives they may be instigated, and 
under whatever disguises they may . 
appear. 
The success of such a work, we 
hope, will stimulate and encourage 
those scholarsand philosophers, who 
have perhaps too hastily supposed 
that politics had absorbed every 
other sentiment, and whom that ap- 
prehension has hitherto induced to 
withold their works from the public. 
Some such we ourselves have. the 
honour of knowing; and many more, 
we have no-doubt, are actuated by 
similar apprehensions, The exam- 
ple of Mr. Roscoe is sufficient to 
prove to them that all taste for sci- 
entific discussion and literary re- 
search is not extinguished, and that 
the public still feel an interest in the 
history of Poggius and Politian, of 
Michael Angelo and Raphael ; and 
even if the world were more ex- 
clusively occupied by politics, it 
would be worthy of men of genius 
to attempt to soften the harshness of 
# political temper by the infusion of 
elegant literature into the mind, 
We should be far, indeed, from 
[*174 
wishing that the people of England 
were more employed even in the 
most delightful amusements that 
letters can afford, than concerned 
about the great interests of their 
country : butit is the nature of well- 
directed literary pursuits to calm 
and mitigate the animosity of face 
tion, without extinguishing or even 
enfeebling public spirit. 
An Enquiry into the Foundation and 
History of the Law of Nations in 
Europe, from the Time of the 
Greeks and Romans to the Age of 
Grotws. By Robert Ward, of the 
Inner Temple, Esq. Barrister at 
Law, 2 vols. 800. 
) has been, a frequent reproach 
to English lawyers, that, hows 
ever profound and extensive may 
be their knowledge of the laws and 
constitution of their own country, 
they are remarkably ignorant of the 
jaws and constitutions of other 
countries, and are little acquainted 
either with diplomatic jurisprue 
dence, or with the law of nations. In 
almost every other art and science, 
England has produced authors whose 
works hold a distinguished rank in 
the republic of letters: but she has 
scarcely given birth to one writer on 
general law, whose works are cited 
out of her own courts of justice, or 
read by the learned of other nations. 
Lord Bolingbroke, who sometimes 
took a pleasure in exposing the de- 
fects of his countrymen, has, on 
more than one occasion, made this 
remark in his writings, 
We have now before us, how- 
ever, a work on the law of nations) 
that may, perhaps, contribute much 
towards redeeming us from this ree 
proach. 
Mr. Ward 
